Democracy in Europe Movement 2025
The Democracy in Europe Movement 2025, or DiEM25, is a Pan-European political movement launched in 2015 by former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis. The movement was officially presented at a ceremonial event held on 9 February 2016 in the Volksbühne theatre in Berlin [1] and on the 23rd March in Rome. Their movement aims to reform the European Union's existing institutions to create a "full-fledged democracy with a sovereign Parliament respecting national self-determination and sharing power with national Parliaments, regional assemblies and municipal councils".[2]
Agenda
The movement's declared aim is to reinvigorate the idea of Europe as a union of people governed with democratic consent rather than what the movement fears the European Union is heading to: a superstate ruled by technocrats issuing edicts.[2] In support of this argument they mention eight distinct aspects where governance is by compulsion rather than consent. First among these is "hit-squad inspectorates and the Troika they formed together with unelected ‘technocrats’ from other international and European institutions".[2] The organization cites the emerging extremist nationalism of some new political parties as well as the so-called Brexit and Grexit state departure initiatives as evidence of this impending European fracture.
In a video statement Varoufakis gave to El País during his visit to Madrid this claim was repeated, citing the Brexit special concessions[3] granted by the EU to the UK in February 2016 as evidence of this disintegration.[4]
Coordination
DiEM25 is led by a Coordinating Collective composed of 12 individuals and overseen by an Advisory Board of well known personalities.
Prominent members
- Yanis Varoufakis (Greece)
- Srećko Horvat (Croatia)
- Lorenzo Marsili (Italy)
- Julian Assange (Australia)
- Noam Chomsky (USA)
- Brian Eno (UK)
- Julien Bayou (France)
- James K. Galbraith (USA)
- Susan George (USA/France)
- Boris Groys (Germany)
- Ken Loach (UK)
- Toni Negri (Italy)
- Saskia Sassen (USA)
- Slavoj Žižek (Slovenia)
References
- ↑ "Yanis Varoufakis: EU no longer serves the people". The Guardian. 9 February 2016.
- 1 2 3 "The EU will be democratised. Or it will disintegrate!" (PDF). Democracy in Europe Movement⋅2025 (Berlin). 2016-02-09. Retrieved 23 April 2016.
- ↑ Guardian newspaper 2 February 2016:EU renegotiation: UK wins partial concession on migrant worker benefits
- ↑ Varoufakis video, in English published by El País on 22 February 2016